Operation is
performed by men who are supposed to be inspired, or sorcerers.
Immediately after the operation, the boys are taken away from the
presence of all females, and kept upon a vegetable diet until recovered
from its effects. The head is covered with grease, and red ochre, with a
bandage passed round it, and is ornamented with tufts of feathers. The
Yudna, or pubic covering, is worn by the circumcised for some months
after the operation.
The fourth stage (Wilyaru) is entered about the age of twenty, when the
back, shoulders, arms and chest, are tattooed. He is called ngulte, at
the time of the operation; yellambambettu, when the incisions have begun
to discharge pus; tarkange, when the sores are just healed; mangkauitya,
at the time the cuts begin to rise; and bartamu, when the scars are at
their highest elevation. Each tribe has a distinctive mode of making
their incisions. Some have scars running completely across the chest,
from one axillar to the other, whilst others have merely dotted lines;
some have circles and semicircles formed on the apex of the shoulder,
others small dots only.
The fifth stage is bourka or full man, and is only attained when the
individual is getting grey-headed.
Among the Murray natives and contiguous tribes, instead of the rite of
circumcision, a ceremony called wharepin, is performed upon youths from
fourteen to sixteen.
